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READING  ENGLISH AROUND THE WORLD

English is a language spoken all around the world.
here are more than 42 countries where the majority of the people speak English.

Most native speakers of English are found in the United Kingdom, the United States of America,Canada,Australia, South Africa,Ireland and New Zealand.

In total,for more than 375 million people English is their mother tongue. And equal number people learn English as a second language. These people will perhaps speak the language of their own country at home with their family, but the language of the government,schools,newspapers and TV is English.

this situation is found in counties such an India, Pakistan,Nigeria and the Philippines. However,the number of people who learn English as a foreign language is more than 750 million. Everywhere in the world children go to school to learn English. Most people learn English for five or six years at high school. In China students learn English at school as a foreign language, except for those in Hong Kong, where many people speak English as a first or at a second language. In only fifty years, English has developed into the language most widely spoken and used in the world.

English is the working language of most international organizations, international trade and tourism. Businessmen and tourists often come to China without being able to speak Chinese. Chinese businessmen,taxi drivers and students talk with them using English. English is also the language of global culture, such as popular music and the Internet. You can listen to English songs on the radio or use English to comm -unicate with  people around the world through the Internet. With so many people communicating in English every day, it will become more and more important to have a good knowledge of English. INTEGRATING SKILLS Reading and writing AMERICAN ENGLISH AND BRITISH ENGLISH Many students want to know about the differences between American English and British English.

How did these differences come about? There is no quick answer to this question. At first the language in Britain and America was the same. In 1776 America became an independent country. After that,the language slowly began to change.

For a long time the language in America stayed the same, while the language in England changed. For example,300 years ago the English talked about "fall". Today,most British people talk about "autumn", but Americans still talk about "fall". In the same way Americans still use the expression "I guess"(meaning "I think"), just as the British did 300 years ago. At the same time. British English and American English stared borrowing words from other languages, ending up with different words. For example,the British took "typhoon" from Chinese, while the Americans took "tornado" from Spanish. In 1828 Noah Webster published the first American dictionary. He wanted to make American English different from British English, so he changed the spelling of many words . That's why the words colour,centre and traveller are spelt color, center and traveler in American English. Except for these differences in spelling, written English is more or less the same in both British and American English.

The differences are greater in the spoken language. For example,Americans say dance ,and in southern England they say/da:ns/. In America they pronounce not [];in southern England they say []. However,most of the time people from the two countries do not have any difficulty in understanding each other.